Wow! You guys are totally being uber-supportive with the Spacetrawler Book #3 pre-sales! Thank you so much!

I had a really busy weekend. I was commissioned to draw a chalk drawing as part of Chalk Fest in Glens Falls, and had loads of fun with it!

Then on Sunday I drove with Mike Peterson down to John Burrough’s writing cabin “Slabsides” in West Park, NY (where we had a very nice tour with his grand-daughter). We were doing research on a serial story we’ll be writing/illustrating (him writing, me drawing) for the New York News Publishers Association.

I’m hoping that now the 12th Eeb (almost sounds like an Ingmar Bergman film, or something with Bruce Willis) has been SJONKed, I’m hoping she can be talked into inventing something that will rejuvenate Yuri’s power systems and get her back on her feet. So to speak.

Chris, my congratulations on the chalk drawing! Excellent work! It’s nice that the city has the facilities needed to store and maintain exotic animals in an environment where everyone can see them. I also imagine there’s a program in place to pay the homeless to … er … feed the dragon.

(“Hey, Lenny! You gotta come over here and see this! Just come up to the edge, bend over really far, and look really, really close. Just … like … that…”)

Nice loop you threw us for. The cool calm sophisticated Dimitri finally has a piece of serious personal news hit him where he ought to have a heart, it affects him for two or three seconds, and then he instantly reverts back to the unconnected drunk he really is. He’s the blonde bimbo here, isn’t he.

Redemption’s a funny thing: Yuri the antisocially insane killer is the one still crying, Dimitri cracks a joke, and the one in horrendous pain gets killed. I never would have expected that the only three honest characters in your story were Yuri, Emily and Krep, but me and my expectations aren’t what just broke your story.

@Nomi, well, he did know that by going to Tornitus-6 he was going to possibly be facing unclamped eebs.

@Waldobaby, I usually steer away from discussing people’s interpretations of my intent, but I want to say, that was not my intention. Dimitri’s outburst here is one of the few instances of him really just losing his shit even if only for a moment, which means (to me) that it affected him a lot. In panel #9 I was attempting to show him feeling sad (the tear in his eye) plus sentimental (his expression and words). The next we see him (two panels later) he realizes he can walk three steps to his left and save the galaxy, so of course he is momentarily focused on getting that done. But I did not intend for it to minimize his mourning.

But, perhaps I’m enabling him by projecting depth where there is only drunkenness. Who knows. :-/

Dimitri isn’t unfeeling, just extremely good at suppressing it when he’s got things to do. Several examples during the series. I get the impression he has a history of “losing it” that got him in trouble, and learned how to control it over time. Maybe the drinking is part of it.

@TB, well, if I had more time and more chalk, I may have been more careful, but in the end I just did my best to step from one similar color to another and not drag my feet. I think some people use fixatives, but I did not. :)

We knew she would die but it didn’t affect the story one bit. It still had gripping action, deep drama and various levels of humor. Still does. Interested to see how much more we will be shown before the end of the story and the beginning of a new one?

It feels like the 7th panel is out of character. Years ago, when someone just broke the news to me that one of my closest friend had died in a car accident, all I could do was go straight to what is shown in panel 8… No revolt, just shock.